April 13, 2015
Kyle Guthrie
[email protected]
The Office of Sustainability held their annual Sustainnovation event in Berger Hall on April 9 and 10 in order to promote awareness on topics such as renewable energy, carbon footprints and climate change.
This will mark the third year that the office has held such an event, and the primary focus of this year’s conference was renewable food sources and climate change.
Sustainovation hosted events, games and panels to promote sustainability. These events included a recycled art contest, video demonstrations, discussion panels and booths aimed at promoting awareness.
Kami McFall, student in the master’s program for Applied Geography and zero waste coordinator for the Office of Sustainability, explained the goals of the event.
“We’ve invited a lot of guest speakers to give their feedback and educational expertise on different aspects of what it means for climate change and how we can help.”
The event also featured several speakers, including professor James White, Ph. D. and professor of Geological Sciences at CU-Boulder, and Jennifer Cross, Ph. D. and assistant professor of Sociology at UCCS.
Winona LaDuke, author, activist and orator, also spoke about her personal experience with climate change and sustainable development.
Several students were on hand to partake in the events and learn what they could do to help the environment, including Anna Ballweber, a senior majoring in Geography and Environmental Studies.
“I think this is a great event that draws in a lot of people from the community and the school,” Ballweber said, “I thought [Winona LaDuke] was absolutely incredible, inspiring and motivating. She was just an incredible person to listen to.”
Ashley Judson, a first-year graduate student in nutrition, attended the event to learn about different facets of sustainability.
“I’m really interested in local food in sustainability,” Judson said. “Having quite a bit of knowledge about that, I wanted to learn more about climate change and sustainability in terms of the energy spectrum.”